Kim’s Day in the Life – NEW!

Kim works in a grammar school

8:20am Arrive at school and begin sorting the desk out for the week. My pile of 19 books seems to be a pile of 18, so I track down a 6th former who took a picture of them for her own interest and ask her to share it with me later, so that I can get to the bottom of the mystery. I share a form with another teacher so I go to register them and sign planners.

8:50am – P1 I use a productivity planner for the week, which I use alongside a diary, and fill it in with laptop bookings, work that needs completing and deadlines, such as work I’m doing for a Guinness World Record attempt book swap, World Book Night quiz night and World Book Day, as well as work on integrating usernames into my Oliver LMS.

9:15am I have 8 laptops booked for music and the rest are to go to an English lesson. Some y7s return from English with a laptop that is too slow in logging on, so we switch it for a tablet. This is a common problem and is usually caused by students not logging them off and shutting them down properly. Sorting out the newspapers, I spot some articles for the Film and Media folder as well as some for the Music news noticeboard and pop off to photocopy them.

9:50am – P2 Laptops return, one teacher comes and asks for them this lesson as the ICT rooms have been taken for exams, so I let them take them. I realise that I should have had a cover lesson but, as I wasn’t informed, I didn’t register them here. There are on-going issues with the use of the 6th form study area for other purposes and with the cover registers, as I currently register supervised study periods online as well as act as a place for cover lessons in C1 to register on paper. Combined with regular KS3 library lessons, this makes for chaos in the first 10 minutes of a period! I begin printing posters for the Guinness World Record book swap attempt on Friday, hoping that my creaky old PC can manage it and then pop up to resources to pick up the print-outs.

10:23am Having run a report of recently added books, I’ve found one book that was missing and taken another off, which still leaves me 18 books instead of the 19 that should be here. I search through piles and find it in the wrong pile- students have been playing with my books again! At least they are eager and didn’t steal them like the John Greens a year ago (I’m missing around 10 copies of his books). I pop in to the office to talk to the finance officer about some student librarian badges and an order of book covers that hasn’t turned up- hence the piles of books.

11:00am – Break and P3 and 4 A few girls return and renew books but most of them need to use devices. Two classes are using all of the devices in P3 and a third comes in case I have any, having confused their booking. After break I type an email to a girl who’s been referred to the library by student support for extra support as she’s dropped subjects and finds it hard to attend school. Last time we met she was having a tough day and didn’t want to come into the room so I type her an email to ask if she needs any more help or information, to inform her of an opportunity I spotted while browsing the local paper and to assure her that she is welcome to return here when she is ready.

I begin Collection Development Policies in preparation for writing my own. There are some publications on the SLA website about policy making so I order those. Meanwhile a teacher pops in on her way through the school so I grab her to rebook some sessions she forgot about with her Y12s. Before I go to my half hour lunch I decide to go around the school putting up posters for the GWR event, so that students see them when they go for lunch.

1:10-Lunchtime At lunch I get the usual group of girls at the counter- we have a good chat before I persuade them to find a seat elsewhere. One of the 6th form wants to know if they should read Lolita for A-level and after a brief discussion she decides to take it out. I should have a student librarian this lunchtime but she cannot attend today. I use the time to finish my cataloguing and help a few girls who are shuffling around the non-fiction. I send an email to form tutors, asking them to mention the Guinness World Record attempt to forms. Then I see an email from a staff member regarding our World Book Night quiz- his band can’t play so I shall have to find an alternative. I make a note to discuss this with the library prefect in charge of the quiz night.

2pm – P5 A small group come to collect laptops. Next week I’ve agreed to make a presentation to Y11 about searching for information and using website curation tools in research, in preparation for a research project they’re doing. It’s based on one I delivered to Y12 last year but I need to update it. I register the students who are here for supervised study and then get on with rearranging the presentation. I do this on a tablet, as my PC crashes when I try to create anything more exciting than a word document.

3pm- After school After school I have a girl who comes and chats to me every evening- she’s having a hard time at home and just likes to sit with me, help out and relax. I also have a student volunteering for her Duke of Edinburgh award. Between the three of us we manage to finish more of a long-term project that involves standardising the way loan categories are entered on the system, so that we can complete a stock take later in the year. I always do easy jobs after school in case the girls need to chat about things that are going on in their lives and have found this role to be half librarian, half pastoral. I find that the hour goes quick and I leave at 4pm, locking up the laptops before I go.

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